Body of girl, 15, found covered in bleach as police reveal step uncle 'will be charged' with choking her to death

A man has been accused of killing his 15-year-old step-niece after she was found choked, smothered and covered in bleach.

Law enforcement sources said Luis Vega, who is a brother of the Bronx girl Destiny Sanchez's stepmother, is believed to have been drinking with her before the teenager died.

Vega, 34, was taken into custody soon after the body of Miss Sanchez, was found in the lobby of a three-family home in Hunts Point, the peninsula in the South Bronx in New York, on Friday morning, police said.

Murder victim Destiny Sanchez, 15, was found choked, smothered and covered in bleach at a relative's home in the Bronx

An autopsy performed on Saturday concluded the teenager was choked and smothered, officials said. Bleach had also been poured on her fully-clothed body, sources said.

Miss Sanchez was killed a week before her 16th birthday.

'She was a good spirit — very happy and outgoing,' said her grieving aunt, Michell Lopez, 37.

RELATED ARTICLES

Share this article

Miss Sanchez - who was killed a week before her 16th birthday - was visiting her stepmother's relatives at their home before she was killed.

'I'm in total shock,' neighbor Angel Nieves, 43, told the New York Daily News. 'I'm still trying to digest it.'

Vega was allegedly drinking with the teenager before she was found dead, sources said. Detectives charged him with endangering the welfare of a child after he clammed up during interviews, sources said.

'We just saw her laying there. Her body was purple.'

Neighbor Vivian Negron

He was later taken to Jacobi Medical Center, where he was treated for a preexisting medical condition, sources said.

Vivian Negron, 34 - who also lives in the building - said she saw Miss Sanchez's body after hearing a woman scream about 8am. Friday.